Public and Community Works of Art

Public art extends the mission to make the arts available to everyone. Crealdé School of Art defines public art as a piece of art that is accessible to the general public at no cost, whose contents are about the community where it is displayed, and which is created by members of the community in collaboration with a professional artist.

Each year Crealdé engages a professional artist in a short-term residency at the Heritage Center, collaborating with community residents to create a permanent piece of public art, providing a focal point for history telling.

A list of public works of art currently on display at the Heritage Center follows. For more information on public art by Crealdé School of Art and for over 500 other public art works in Orange County, click here.

Description: This artistic collaboration uses a traditional form of folk art to memorialize a community. Working with Pennsylvania-based African-American folk artist Mr. Imagination, participants, including Crealdé artist Lynn Tomlinson, community resident Tom Morton, and area school children and seniors, built this public art sculpture using memorabilia donated from the community. Mr. Imagination combined the items with his own signature cast elements of hands and angels using concrete to produce the 3’ x 1’ x 9’ wall sculpture. Artwork produced by Crealdé School of Art in partnership with the Golden Rule Foundation, with majority funding from Joseph and Lynn Conte.

Artist Biography: Mr. Imagination, born in 1948, is a native of Chicago, Illinois now living in Pennsylvania. “As a kid, I would cut up old boxes and paint on those, or just use anything I could find. By the time I was a teenager, my room was so full of art I slept under the kitchen table.” Once known as Gregory Warmack, he took the name “Mr. Imagination” when he survived a near-fatal shooting in 1978. His brush with death inspired a new awakening in his artwork that expresses his declaration of faith and a sense of pride and dignity in where he came from. His art can be found at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., the American Museum of American Folk Art in New York, and the House of Blues in both Chicago and Orlando. He was chosen to create a piece for the Coca Cola Olympic salute to Folk Art at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, and was featured in an exhibit at the Terra Museum in Chicago, Illinois in 1993, which the New York Times hailed as one of the most significant shows of the year. He is represented by Carl Hammer Galleries in Chicago, Illinois and Jeanine Taylor Folk Art in Sanford, Florida.

Description: A community picnic scene painted in bold colors with black outlines and descriptive words labeling the food (not always spelled correctly, a Ruby Williams signature). This was a collaboration between Ruby Williams and over 50 community members during the April 28, 2007 Grand Opening Celebration of the Hannibal Square Heritage Center. The painting is 4’ x 8’, using acrylic paints and plywood.

Artist Biography: Ruby C. Williams was born and raised in Beallsville, Florida. She and her family founded a small farming community in Plant City, Florida. Ruby left Florida in the mid 1950s and spent the next thirty years as an upholsterer, minister, and counselor of children. When she returned to the farm, she started making signs to promote her small roadside produce stand, and shortly started producing the sign-like works of art which support her and her family today. Ruby is represented in Orange County by Jeanine Taylor Folk Art in Sanford, Florida.

A Collaboration of over 300 students and community members with
Crealde's Public Art Coordinator, artist Lynn Tomlinson and
Crealde artists Marie Carrasquillo, Daryl Golden, Willie Maria
Lopez, Virginia Maxfield, and Jan May.

Created: January, 2007

The scenes depicted in ceramic and glass mosaic were designed by schoolchildren after listening to community historian Fairolyn Livingston describe the events of the community’s early history, as well as her own childhood in the neighborhood. Over 500 students, artists and volunteers worked for six months to create this lasting tribute to the proud history and heritage of west Winter Park. Dedicated to the Community February 17, 2007 and produced in partnership with The Golden Rule Foundation, with major funding from The Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation and additional funding from The City of Winter Park & the Walt Disney World Helping Kids Shine program. The mosaic is xx and xx and is located outside the Winter Park Community Center, adjacent to the Heritage Center.

Lead artist Lynn Tomlinson is the Public Art Coordinator with Crealdé School of Art. She holds M.A. degrees from both the University of Pennsylvania and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as well as a B.A. in English from Cornell University. Her work, which includes independent films, shorts for Kids’ Public Television, “Sesame Street,” MTV, and commercial clients, has won many awards, among them a Mid-Atlantic Emmy, fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, and most recently a 2006 Florida Division of Cultural Affairs Individual Artist Fellowship for Media Arts. An independent producer and artist in Orlando, in the summers she serves as Visiting Associate Professor in film animation at Cornell University in Ithica, New York. Currently, she is a key collaborator on a website featuring Florida folk artists and their communities, (www.Folkvine.org).

Upcoming Collaborations

Have you always wanted to paint but thought you
couldn’t? Everybody can paint! Come in and recapture some of the
free spirited imagination of your youth. Bring your favorite
memories or your favorite photos of family members, ancestors,
or community events. Limited to 12 students, half of the spaces
are reserved for Hannibal Square residents.
All materials and lunch are provided.

Folk Art painter Linda Schäpper is most widely
recognized for her "Family of Christ" tapestry—an enormous
patchwork of human figures encircling Jesus on the cross that
became the spiritual backdrop for Pope John Paul II’s landmark
October 1995 mass in New York’s Central Park and for her
"Nativity II" which became the 1998 UNICEF Christmas card. Linda
Schäpper: Central Florida Folk Art Painter of Historic and
Sacred Scenes is an exhibition of paintings depicting
African-American community life from a historic perspective.

For a time, Linda lived in Lebanon and painted
regularly until the brutality of civil war took its toll on her
spirit and she gave up her brushes and canvas for a fifteen year
period. In 1995, she got back to it, and has been painting full
speed ever since. She has over 400 paintings in her home, often
working on 12 to 20 large pieces around a central theme, many
destined to hang in church buildings or sanctuaries. These days,
she finds time to write and has also illustrated several books,
including eight on handicrafts. She is in the process of
illustrating the life of St. Paul for a future book.

Saturday, October 31 through
November 7, 2009
at the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

In conjunction with the "Bigger Than A
Scrapbook" exhibition January 15 – March 27,
2010.

A free collaborative workshops for current or former residents of the west side of
Winter Park. Available for up to 16 people or 8 families. Any
family photos to be transferred to quilts are due by October 1
(so they can be transferred on to fabric).

To reserve your space please call Heritage
Center Manager Fairolyn Livingston no later than Friday, August
14, at 407-539-2680.

The Hannibal Square Heritage Center is a project of the City of Winter Park and the Community Redevelopment
Agency, operated by Crealdé School of Art, a non-profit organization, and the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of Winter Park. Crealdé School of Art is a non-profit art organization supported in part by memberships, the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs; the Florida Arts Council; United Arts of Central Florida; and various private foundations.